COPING WITH PEACE AFTER A DEBACLE

This article analyzes a situation when the war was actually over and society began to recover. The government faced a severe challenge after the war. These serious problems will be analyzed in the light of the Great Northern War (1700–1721). The plans of the central government to stabilize society will be analyzed, as will the different kinds of planning activities undertaken by the authorities. The critical nature of the situation led the government to concentrate solely on short‐term planning. The government had no proper strategies; there were just a couple of exceptions to this rule. Firstly, the problems in Finland were repeatedly concrete and tangible. This made them both easy to address and essential to redress. Conditions in Finland became an issue of the first order. Even here decisions were dictated to a great extent by short‐term goals. Another strategy was connected with notion of the ‘primacy of the economy’. The government tried to deal with the problems by granting tax exemptions and reliefs, or correspondingly by cut‐backs in areas other than those that had been devastated. The machinery of government was not able to create anything new after the war, but its supervision of existing activities was excellent. This was important with respect to the allocation and use of the meagre resources.     

Suburbanization and sprawl in post-socialist Belgrade and Sofia

The goal of this research is to examine the processes of suburbanization and sprawl in two post-socialist capital cities in Southeast Europe – Belgrade, Serbia and Sofia, Bulgaria. Our analysis begins with a survey of relevant historical developments in the two cities, which illustrates the impact of major political, economic and social drivers on urban development processes and form. We follow this with an empirical study aimed at identifying contemporary features of peri-urban processes occurring in the two cities. Specifically, we explore spatial patterns, general population trends and changes in urban densities. Our study confirms earlier observations by other researchers that processes of suburbanization are occurring in Belgrade and Sofia. Yet this research goes further and emphasizes the specific combination of conditions inherited from the era of state socialism and the features of South-east European urban culture. Thus regarding the form of urban expansion, we observe relatively weak trends of sprawl with strong local specifics. On this basis, we discuss our empirical results with the objective of identifying the specifics of studied processes in Belgrade and Sofia as a grounds for the articulation of an appropriate policy framework.     

Contextualist dilemmas: Methodology of the history of political theory in two stages

This article traces the development of contextualist methodology in the study of the history of political thought/political theory after WWII. It argues that the so-called ‘Cambridge School’, often regarded as the core of historicist contextualism, arose during the 1950s and 1960s in response to dilemmas that were largely internal to (the history of) political philosophy as it was practiced in Britain in an academic culture dominated by analytic philosophy. This first stage of contextualist theorizing, usually associated with Laslett, Skinner and Pocock, was highly influential, but it also contributed to the formation of a new set of problems. These were connected to the diversification and internationalization of the historicist contextualist study of political thought after the 1960s. The ‘second stage’ of contextualist theorizing was shaped by post-analytic and post-modernist impulses among others. Because of the variety of philosophical and conceptual commitments on notions central to the field such as ‘political thinking’, ‘politics’, or ‘power’, it is unlikely that the present historicist contextualist approaches would come to share a unified methodology or theory of historical interpretation.     

The peculiar touch of the East: Reading the post-war landscapes of the Finnish Orthodox Church

Before the Second World War the heartland of the Finnish Orthodox Church lay in the country parishes of eastern Finland, where the characteristic churches, small wooden chapels, old cemeteries and monasteries were seen as a part of both the physical and the mental 'borderland' landscape. The war changed the situation permanently. The territories that Finland were forced to cede included this main area of Orthodox culture. The evacuation to the remaining parts of Finland meant the end of the previous religious territorial system and the establishment of a new one. After the war the church had to rebuild the majority of its physical artefacts and administrative systems, and, above all inspire a new sense of continuity, identity and sanctity. This article will discuss how the rebuilding process, both material and spiritual, has manifested itself in the landscape of eastern Finland and how its manifestations and representations have been read and interpreted through the discourses of regional and national identity, heritage tourism and pilgrimage. Avant la deuxième guerre mondiale, le coeur de l'Église orthodoxe finnoise résidait dans les paroisses rurales de l'Ést de la Finlande où les églises typiques, les petites chapelles de bois, les vieux cimetières et les monastères étaient vus comme l'expression physique et mentale d'un paysage limitrophe. La guerre a changé ce paysage de façon permanente. Les territoires que la Finlande fut forcée de céder incluaient cette région-clé de la culture Orthodoxe. L'évacuation vers les parties restantes de la Finlande entraîna la fin de l'ancien système territorial religieux et l'établissement d'un nouveau régime. Après la guerre, l'Église dut rebâtir la majorité de ses systèmes administratifs et lieux physiques et, pardessus tout, inspirer un nouveau sens de sa continuité, identité et caractère sacré. Cet article discute comment le processus de reconstruction, à la fois matériel et spirituel, s'est manifesté dans le paysage de la Finlande de l'Est et comment ces manifestations et représentations ont été interprétées à travers les discours de l'identité régionale et nationale, du tourisme relié au patrimoine et des pèlerinages. Antes de la Segunda Guerra Mundial el corazón de la Iglesia Ortodoxa Finlandesa se encontraba en las parroquías rurales en el este de Finlandia donde las iglesias características, las pequeñas capillas de madera, los antiguos cementarios y monasterios eran considerados parte del paisaje fronterizo, tanto físico como mental. La guerra cambió esta situación para siempre. Los territorios que Finlandia fue obligado a ceder incluían esta área principal de la cultura ortodoxa. La evacuación de lo que quedaba de Finlandia significaba el fin del previo sistema territorio religioso y el establecimiento de un nuevo sistema. Después de la Guerra la iglesia tenía que reconstruir la mayoría de sus artefactos físicos y sistemas de administración y, sobre todo, tenía que inspirar un nuevo sentido de continuidad, identidad y sanctidad. Este papel habla de como el proceso de reconstrucción, tanto material como espiritual, se ha mostrado en el paisaje de Finlandia del este y de como estas manifestaciones y representaciones han sido interpretados por los discursos sobre identidad regional y nacional, el turismo patrimonial y peregrinación.     

The Archaeological Survey Project in Fatschenbrunn,Municipality of Oberaurach,Germany: A Case Study for the Reconstruction of Past Farming Regimes in the Late Medieval and Post-Medieval Era

This paper presents the preliminary results of a survey project which is being carried out in the small village of Fatschenbrunn, in Lower Franconia, Germany. The project combines archaeological, historical geographical, botanical, geological and pedological data to reconstruct the farming regimes and land use in the late medieval and post-medieval era. Although the project is still on-going, the collected data allows the formulation of hypotheses on the formation of fertile agricultural soils through long-term human intervention in the past.     

Regional Labor Market Dynamics, Housing, and Migration

Abstract.  This study explores the impact of plant‐level labor market dynamics and housing markets on gross migration flows. The internal and the external reorganizations of regional labor markets are shown to be related. An increase in internal turnover of jobs and workers in regional labor markets is found to increase net‐migration. This effect arises mainly from a reduction in out‐migration. Housing markets constitute constraints for migration. In particular, an increase in regional housing prices and a large share of owner‐occupancy housing discourages net‐migration to a region by reducing in‐migration. In contrast, the out‐migration rate remains largely unaffected by housing markets.